leftwikiaorg-20200213-history
1998
1997 1998 1999 Events * Agricultural Export Relief Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-194) allows American wheat sales to Pakistan after July 1998. * Oregon's 20,724 acre Opal Creek becomes a U.S. Wilderness Area. * Arson attack by rightwing extremists on abortion providers in California (Marcyh) and North Carolina (three times in September). * Spring: Boris Yeltsin replaces Viktor Chernomyrdin with Sergei Kiriyenko as Prime Minister of Russia. * Hugo Chavez takes power in Venezuela. Promises land reform and limits on expoloitation of natural resources. * The Islamic Iran Participation Front or جبهه مشارکت ایران اسلامی is established * Iranian Baha'i Ruhollah Ruhani is executed for apostasy. * Who needs political ethics when you have market focres? The 1998 Libertarian Party Convention rejects Jacob Hornberger's proposed bylaw that would prohibit Libertarian Party candidates from paying cash or gifts, both before and after nomination, to members of the Libertarian Party National Committee, the national Libertarian Party staff or their close relatives for any national presidential political campaign work. * China's population is 1,248.1 million. * Bulworth is released. * David Brin publishes The Transparent Society. * Sir Neil Kinnock argues that Europe needs its own Global Navigation Satellite System * First Viagra sales. * Kazakh capital of Akmola is renamed Astana. Astana means 'capital." Timeline January * January 19: News of Bill Clinton's sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is broken on the conservative web site The Drudge Report. The mainstream media follows suit two days later. It is revealed that, three days earlier, Independent Counsel Ken Starr had expanded his investigation into the Clintons' financial dealings to include investigating this sexual affair. February * February 1: Muslim sectarian ritoing in Rengasdenklok in West Java. * February 3: Cavalese cable-car disaster; U.S. Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare (anti-radar) aircraft, strikes a cable supporting a gondola and causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy. The pilot, Capt. Richard J. Ashby, was later acquitted of of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide by a U.S. military court. Charges against his navigator Capt. Joseph Schweitzer were dropped. * February 12: Darwin Day March * March 6: Mass shooting in Newington, Connecticut at the Connecticut State Lottery HQ as Matthew Beck shoots four and then himself with a Glock 9mm pistol. * March 24: Mass shooting in Jonesboro Arkansas at Westside Middle School: 5 die and 9 are wounded. The shooters include Andrew 'Drew' Golden, a psychopath raised in the Southern Gun Culture. April * April 15: Pol Pot dies peacefully in his sleep of heart failure. The body is cremated on a pile of rubbish and used auto tires. Tak Mok will cheat justice in a similar fashion in 2006. May * May 11 and May 13: India announces it has conducted a series of underground tests of nuclear weapons. * May 11: Israeli government issues formal proclamation that Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard acted as an official Israeli agent for LAKAM. * May 12: Snipers kill 5 students at Trisakti University in Indonesia. Circumstantial evidence poitns to Kopassus as the perpetrator organization. * May 13: Ethiopian parliament declares war on newly independent Eritria. Shooting by Ethiopian troops of unarmed Eritrean negotiators at the Eritrean village of Geza Chi'a, north of Badme led to war. ] * May 20: Indonesia dictator Suharto resigns. * May 21: Mass shooting in Springfield Oregon at Thurston High School as 15 year old Kip Kinkel shoots and kills 4 and wounds 21 others with a Glock 9mm pistol, .22 Sturm Ruger rifle, and a .22 Sturm Ruger pistol. He killed his parents before the massacre. * May 28: Pakistan announces it too has entered the nuclear club by detonating 5 nuclear bombs. July * July: IMF transfers 5$ billion to Russia in unsuccessful effort to defend the value of the rouble. * July 11: David Huckabee, son of Mike Huckabee, hangs a stray dog at a youth summer camp. The psychopath doesn't fall far from the tree. * July 28: Multi-party government becomes mandatory in Fiji. August * August 7: Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks against the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania kill 212. * August 20: The U. S. launches cruise missile strikes against alleged terrorist camps in Sudan and Afghanistan run by Osama bin Laden and his network. Republicans accuse President Clinton for launching the strikes solely to distract the public from the Monica Lewinsky affair. * August 27: Bombing near Tel Aviv's main synogogue injures 21. September * September: U.S. Congress in the form of sometime Libertarian/always Republican Bob Barr blocks implementation of Medical Marijuana Law in Washington, DC. This from conservatives who whine about Big Government. * September 11: Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov is appointed the new Russian Prime Minister. * September 23: Parliamentary Election in Kiribati. * September 23: Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte flies to London and is handed a warrant for his arrest. October * October 7: Soon to be miltiary dictator of Pakistan Pervez Muhsarraf is promoted to full General. * October 9: Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu appoints Ariel Sharon as Israeli Foreign Minister. * October 10: Dimitrii Filoppov is assassinated with a radio controlled bomb. * October 12: Matthew Shepherd dies as a result of injuries suffered after a horrific anti-gay hate crime in Laramie, Wyoming. * October 28: Pervez Musharraf named Pakistani Army Chief. * October 30: Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon says that real peace with the Palestinians would "take years" to achieve. He and the other Israeli rightists use their power to make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. November * November: Populist Col. Lucio Gutierrez wins presidential election in Ecuador. * November 3: Democrats pick up five seats in the House in midterm elections, becoming the first party since 1934 to gain seats while holding the Presidency. * November 6: Facing internal dissension from House Republicans, Newt Gingrich announces he will not seek another term as Speaker of the House. * November 10-12: Indonesian Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat (People's Consultative Assembly) resceinds 1985 Mass Organizations Law that required all auxh bodies to adopt Pancasila as their foundational ideology. * November 20: Russian democrat Galina Starovoitova is assassinated. * November 24: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat inaugurates Gaza International Airport. December * December: President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton tour Masada with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that the latter can show the former what "Jewish determination" means. The fact that the Roman 10th Legion defeated the fanatical Sicarii was not emphasized in the public relations encounter. * December 19: A lame duck Republican-controlled House of Representatives passes two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton on near party-line votes.